Best Start Family Hubs

Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the expected impact of the new Best Start Family Hubs in England.

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, we now know without doubt that Sure Start worked. It delivered twice as much in benefits as it cost, with positive impacts on health, SEND identification and educational outcomes. That is why the Government are investing over £500 million to rebuild crucial family services. Best Start Family Hubs will provide that essential support, from conception through the early years, to parents across the whole of England.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, the evidence on the impact of early years investment is compelling, as my noble friend the Minister has outlined. It matters for health, growth, skills and employment—almost every outcome we can imagine is improved by early intervention. What steps are being taken to ensure that child development and family support are given the priority they deserve, not just in the very welcome Best Start hubs but right across government?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

As my noble friend mentions, early years is a real priority for this Government, starting with our plan for change and a national target by 2028 to increase the proportion of children achieving a good level of development when starting school. We have followed this up with statutory targets for every local authority, with each one tasked with producing ambitious local plans to deliver. Best Start Family Hubs are one vital element of the best start in life strategy but, as my noble friend mentions, this will have impacts right across government.

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

My Lords, I should like to build on the noble Baroness’s question. Will the Minister advise whether this Government are still committed to Best Start Family Hubs supporting families with children who are older than five? It should go from nought to 19, or nought to 25 for SEND children, as the emphasis in their publications has been on what we might call the Sure Start age range of nought to five. What will the Government expect family hubs to provide in reducing parental conflict and providing support for separating and separated parents?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I acknowledge the noble Lord’s involvement in setting up the family hub programme under the previous Government. I reassure him that Best Start Family Hubs will be open to all families with children aged nought to 19 and up to 25 for young people with SEND. They will be welcoming spaces where every family feels valued and confident to ask for help. They will be open to older children and they can become part of the local youth offer, including Young Futures hubs, where that makes sense locally—these programmes will be locally driven. We are working with other government departments to determine what additional services will be included in Best Start Family Hubs. That will be reflected in further guidance, which we will publish in spring 2026.

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, how will Best Start Family Hubs reduce rather than deepen regional inequalities, particularly in areas with the highest child poverty rates, where pressure on local services is often greatest?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The commitment is to make sure that every local authority area has a family hub. Deprivation is one of the key factors in the programme. We want to make sure that all children benefit from the services on offer; it is down to local authorities to determine where their priorities are and how they can best help and give the support that families need.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, pilot schemes under which parents are trained, particularly by charities, to help other parents with the necessary skills in bringing up children are shown to have a high rate of success. What are the Government doing to encourage local authorities and schools to help build up such groups?

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I think the noble Baroness references the value of the voluntary, community and faith sector. I reassure her that we are investing £2.25 million in five organisations to help with exactly the areas she is suggesting, to break down barriers and enable people to access services. We know from the Sure Start model that bringing parents and families together from a range of backgrounds is invaluable in helping them get the support they need. We hope to build on that model.

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, families with children with special needs or disabilities often have very particular needs that are often overlooked. Can my noble friend expand on what services are being made available to those parent carers?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

My noble friend, as always, raises an important point. We have committed in the best start in life strategy to having a children and family services practitioner in each family hub to support children and families with additional needs. We recognise just how significant demand is this year, particularly for early years. We look forward to the SEND reform White Paper, which will come out soon and help progress this further.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I was very glad to hear the Minister acknowledge the work of my noble friend Lord Farmer, who has offered huge leadership in this area. We on these Benches are very pleased to see the expansion of family hubs and even the choice of a name used in a Conservative paper on the subject from 2021—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, I was not sure that the Minister addressed all my noble friend’s question, particularly in relation to families experiencing domestic abuse, parental conflict and separated parents. Saying that they need to consult across government to work out the additional services, with guidance in spring 2026, does not feel as clear an answer as I think she can give us.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Baroness touches on an important point: we need to build on the good things from the Sure Start model and the good things that came out of the family hub model, bring them together and analyse the way forward. On working with parents, the model has proved that parents coming in will often get confidence from other parents in the hub helping them with support. Working with professional support in the hub, they can then be signposted to special services to give them the support they need. I cannot be more precise than that because things will develop in different ways in different areas, but there is a real determination to take advantage of all the cross-cutting themes that can come out of this. Parental relationships are one of those areas.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, the House will have been surprised by recent reports about the number of children who start school and are not fully toilet trained and have very poor command of language. Does that not illustrate how we must invest more in parental skills to help people who are not natural parents learn how to be good parents and provide this essential development at that stage in the child’s early life?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I completely agree with the noble Lord. We recently had a whole Question devoted to the issue of toilet training and preparedness for life in school. Talking to reception teachers, I think that some of the examples they give are really disturbing. We have been through a very difficult time with Covid, but bringing families together and sharing experience is a very good substitute, particularly in areas where the natural community support and support from extended family might not exist anymore. That is one of the reasons why this development is so important.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, has the Minister noticed how much time the Government are spending on dealing with austerity and privatisation? We are having to deal with this problem only because the last Tory Government closed all these centres originally.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I believe that the Opposition now recognise that it was an enormous mistake to reduce the funding that went into Sure Start and family support. We are reaping the benefit of that decline in support. As one of the people on the front line in local authorities, I can tell noble Lords that it was one of the most difficult pieces of work that we had to do—reducing services that we knew delivered so well for families. I am delighted that we are now in a position to start rebuilding those services for the best outcomes for our young children coming through the system.